Gérard Collomb (; born 20 June 1947) is a French politician who served as

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

from 2001 to 2017 and again from 2018 until 2020. A member of

La République En Marche! Renaissance (RE), previously known as La République En Marche ! (frequently abbreviated LREM, LaREM or REM; translated as "The Republic on the Move" or "Republic Forward"), or sometimes called simply En Marche ! () as its original name, is a l ...

(LREM) since he left the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(PS) in 2017, he was

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

in the

first First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and second government of Prime Minister

Édouard Philippe Édouard Charles Philippe (; born 28 November 1970) is a French politician serving as Mayor of Le Havre since 2020, previously holding the office from 2010 to 2017. He was Prime Minister of France from 15 May 2017 to 3 July 2020 under President ...

from 2017 to 2018. Disagreements with President

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...

led Collomb to resign and return as Mayor of Lyon. He has been a councillor for both the City of Lyon and

Lyon Metropolis The Metropolis of Lyon (french: Métropole de Lyon), also known as ("Greater Lyon"), is a French territorial collectivity located in the east-central region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is a directly elected metropolitan authority encompassing t ...

since 2020.

Political career

Local politics

Collomb was elected as a Socialist municipal councillor for the

9th arrondissement of Lyon The 9th arrondissement of Lyon is one of the nine arrondissements of the City of Lyon. It covers the northwestern quarters Vaise Vaise is a neighborhood of the City of Lyon (France), located along the Saône The Saône ( , ; frp, Sona; la ...

in the

1977 French municipal elections Municipal elections were held in France on 13 and 20 March 1977. By 1977, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing had been in power since 1974. The left-wing coalition of the Communists and Socialists, united under a "government program" swept t ...

, and has been re-elected six times since then. In 1981, aged 34, he was elected to the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...

. He was re-elected in 1986 but lost his seat in 1988. From 1989 on, he led by the municipal opposition to

Michel Noir Michel Noir (born 19 May 1944) is a French politician. Political career Governmental functions Minister of Foreign Trade : 1986-1988 Electoral mandates ''National Assembly of France'' Member of the National Assembly for Rhône : 1978-198 ...

on the Lyon municipal council. From 1992 to 1999 he also served as regional councillor for the

Rhône-Alpes Rhône-Alpes () was an administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it is part of the new region Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is located on the eastern border of the country, towards the south. The region was named after the river Rhône an ...

region, before his resignation. Collomb was defeated in the 1995 local elections in Lyon, and became Mayor of the 9th arrondissement and Vice-President of the

Urban Community of Lyon The Urban Community of Lyon (french: Urban communities in France, Communauté urbaine de Lyon), also known as Grand Lyon (i.e. "Greater Lyon") or by its former acronym COURLY, is the former intercommunality, intercommunal structure gathering the ci ...

, until 2001. He ran as leader of the

Plural Left The Gauche Plurielle (French for ''Plural Left'') was a left-wing coalition in France, composed of the Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste'' or PS), the French Communist Party (''Parti communiste français'' or PCF), the Greens, the Left Radi ...

list in the 2001 local elections. He was elected Mayor on 25 March and also elected as president of the

, a post he held until 2014. Among the projects he has implemented is the

Vélo'v Vélo'v is a bicycle sharing system run by the city of Lyon, France, in conjunction with the advertising company JCDecaux. It has been the pioneer of smart bicycle-sharing systems, previous systems being more ad hoc and run similar to a cha ...

. In 2004, Collomb was re-elected Senator for the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...

. He was re-elected as Mayor of Lyon by a large margin in March 2008, defeating

Dominique Perben Dominique Perben (born 11 August 1945) is a French politician. Born in Lyon, he was French Minister of Transportation from 2005 to 2007. He was previously Minister of Justice (2002–05), Minister of Civil Service and Administration (1995–199 ...

of the

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right political party in France that was one of the two major contemporary political parties in France along with the centre-left Social ...

(UMP) in the first round by a landslide. He was re-elected again in 2014. Ahead of the 2008

Reims Congress The Reims Congress was the twenty-second national congress of the French Socialist Party (''Parti socialiste'' or PS), taking place from 14 to 16 November 2008 in the city of Reims in the Marne. Incumbent First Secretary François Hollande announ ...

, Collomb led the "Hope on the left, proud to be Socialist" (french: L'espoir à gauche, fier(e)s d'être socialistes) motion of behalf of

Ségolène Royal Marie-Ségolène Royal (; born 22 September 1953) is a French politician who was the Socialist Party candidate for the Presidency of France in the 2007 election. Royal was president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council from 2004 to 2014 ...

. He was a finalist for the 2010

World Mayor World Mayor is a biennial award organized by the City Mayors Foundation since 2004. It intends to raise the profile of mayors worldwide, as well as honour those who have served their communities well and who have contributed to the well-being of c ...

prize. Collomb has been President of the

Metropolis of Lyon The Metropolis of Lyon (french: Métropole de Lyon), also known as ("Greater Lyon"), is a French territorial collectivity located in the east-central region of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. It is a directly elected metropolitan authority encompassing t ...

from 2015 to 2017. Since 2017, he has been councillor for the

Career in national politics

Collomb was one of

's first close allies and vocal supporters among leading Socialists ahead of the 2017 presidential elections. On 17 May 2017, he was named

in the Philippe Government. Lyon Deputy mayor Georges Képénékian was elected as Lyon mayor succeeding Collomb. In October 2018, Collomb prevailed in resigning in order to run again for mayor of Lyons. He was quoted saying of Macron, ‘Very few of us can still talk to" him. Collomb was "recently revealed to have said in private that France risked a civil war unless immigration, legal and illegal, was sharply curtailed within the next five years". As minister he had "talked about France being 'flooded' by immigrants—a term frequently used by" past

National Rally The National Rally (french: Rassemblement National, ; RN), until 2018 known as the National Front (french: link=no, Front National, ; FN), is a Far-right politics, far-rightAbridged list of reliable sources that refer to National Rally as fa ...

presidential candidate

Marine Le Pen Marion Anne Perrine "Marine" Le Pen (; born 5 August 1968) is a French lawyer and politician who ran for the French presidency in 2012, 2017, and 2022. A member of the National Rally (RN; previously the National Front, FN), she served as its pre ...

. After touring parts of

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

as minister, Collomb had said, “The situation is very difficult" and used the phrase "Reconquering the Republic” to frame the challenge facing the country.Mortimer, Gavin
"France is fracturing but Macron remains in denial" (blog)
The Spectator (U.K.), 17 October 2018. Retrieved 2019-02-22.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Collomb, Gerard 1947 births Living people French interior ministers State ministers of France Mayors of Lyon People from Chalon-sur-Saône La République En Marche! politicians Socialist Party (France) politicians University of Lyon alumni Senators of Rhône (department) Politicians from Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes